5 years ago this minute, I was checking in to get on a jet to Philly...

[FormerDittoHead]

We was in Toronto, after having attended their film festival.

We were running late for our 9:30 flight, and JUST pasted immigration. We were at the gate to enter the terminal, and we were told we better RUN to our flight, as it was in another concourse and at the END.

We grabbed our bags, and suddenly the guard there stopped us.

"Sorry Sir, your flight's been cancelled".

"What do you mean? How do you know what flight I'm taking?"

"ALL flights are cancelled due to terrorist attack, please return to the terminal."

We all turned back, my wife and I LAST in line (although there were to be more to follow). My first thought was that some wacko flew his Cesna onto the White House lawn again. There were no TVs in the check-in terminal.

We didn't know if the flights would resume, etc. No one knew anything.

We stayed an extra week in a local airport hotel, waiting day-to-day for flights to resume (ended up taking the train back to Philly).

Anyway, it's a day I'll never forget.

[In_The_Wind]

1. I'm glad you weren't up in the air when all hell broke loose.

It must have been terrifying for anyone flying at that time.

You are also very lucky to have been with your wife. It was such a scary time for all of us.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Was At An Airport Too

I had a 9:30 flight to Atlanta. As usual i was at the airport plenty early. (I can't stand adding stress by pushing my luck with the clock.)

Probably a 5 minutes before boarding was about to begin, someone said that the world trade center had been hit by a plane. I knew the lady in the newstand had a little TV (i was in a tiny airport). So, i went back out through security to see if she had it on. I was watching it when the second plane hit, on live TV. Well, i KNEW there was no way we were flying that day. So, without even stopping at the counter, i just left the airport.

When i arrived back at my office, the entire facility was under lockdown. They wouldn't even let me in!

So, i went home and watched the day's events unfold on CNN.
The Professor

[FormerDittoHead]

6. It was a little different being out of the country...

In the week that followed, waiting for transportation over the borders to open again (read story below) I became VERY AWARE that I was an American.

People who found out our situation would point us out to others and they would look. I realized how my wife and I were Americans, but I realized they were NOT. THEY didn't feel like THEY were attacked... The film festival continued, etc.

OK, the border story.

No planes or even trains were running for better part of a week. Only cars and buses were getting through, and the lines took hours.

I checked out renting a car to drive from Canada to Philly, but they wanted like $700 because we were taking it out of the country. Perspective: the flight was @ $140 round trip.

So, I figured we could save like $400 by 1) renting a car to go to Nigagra falls 2) WALKING OVER THE BRIDGE WITH OUR BAGS (like crossing into West Germany), 3) getting a cab to the car rental and then 4)renting the car for the rest of the way.

MY WIFE THOUGHT I WAS INSANE so we waited until the trains were running...

PS: It took 16 HOURS to get to Philly (BIG delay at the border).

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Think I Would Have Done What You Thought About

My wife would have thought i was nuts too! But, i think i would have done it anyway!

Adding on Edit: I also had the advantage of being HOME! I wasn't trying to get home, i was trying to leave on a biz trip. So, when all this broke, i could just get in the car and go home.
The Professor

[LynneSin]

3. Five years ago I slept until about 2pm in the afternoon

I was working nightshift, so when I got home at 6am in the morning, I usually spent about an hour watching "Washington Journal" on C-Span (I'd have it on the timer) and then off to sleep. Odd thing was, I had a doctor's appointment the day before and forgot to reset my clock from 11am. I usually had it on the local rock station, which obviously pre-empted their normal programming.

So, the alarm clock did go off but I slept through it and had this bizarre dream I was trapped in a burning building.

I had no idea

[Broken_Hero]

4. Damn....In truth though

its a day that none of us will forget. Its amazing reading all of these 9/11 threads, of what/where people were doing at the time...I haven't seen to many like yours, and thanks for sharing it...:hi:

[NewWaveChick1981]

5. That day, there was a guy from Toronto whose plane

had been forced to land at the airport not far from here. He and several others from other flights rented a car and decided to grab some dinner wherever they could, and the only place that was still open at 5 PM was a KFC not far from the airport. We didn't feel like cooking, so we searched for some place that was still open and ended up at KFC too. The line was long, and we all stood there talking to each other. There was still plenty of misinformation floating around, so nobody knew anything concrete. The group was talking about driving back to their respective destinations; I don't know what happened to them, but I hope they did, because the airport did not reopen for several more days.

[CottonBear]

7. 5 years ago I spent a wonderful morning taking a riding lesson

on my beautiful Thoroughbred, Chipper. I finished the lesson and my trainer got on him to cool him down for me because I had to get on to work. I had no idea that anything had happened until I got in my car and I turned on NPR. The news was shocking. :( I spent the rest of the day listening to NPR and working on a 4 PM project deadline that I met. I heard the live coverage of the towers collapsing. I did not see any TV until about 7 PM at night. On the way home, I picked up a paper that had a full page color photo of the burning towers. That was the first image of the day's events that I had seen.